.TH mpiexec 1 "11/2/2007" " " "MPI"
.SH NAME
mpiexec \-  Run an MPI program 
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.fi
.nf
mpiexec args executable pgmargs [ : args executable pgmargs ... ]
.fi

where 
.I args
are command line arguments for 
.I mpiexec
(see below),
.I executable
is the name of an executable MPI program, and 
.I pgmargs
are command line arguments for the executable.  Multiple executables
can be specified by using the colon notation (for MPMD - Multiple Program
Multiple Data applications).   For example, the following command will run
the MPI program 
.I a.out
on 4 processes:
.nf
mpiexec -n 4 a.out
.fi


The MPI standard specifies the following arguments and their meanings:

.PD 0
.TP
.B -n <np> 
- Specify the number of processes to use
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -host <hostname> 
- Name of host on which to run processes
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -arch <architecture name> 
- Pick hosts with this architecture type
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -wdir <working directory> 
- cd to this one 
.B before
running executable
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -path <pathlist> 
- use this to find the executable
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -soft <triplets> 
- comma separated triplets that specify requested numbers
of processes (see the MPI-2 specification for more details)
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -file <name> 
- implementation-defined specification file
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -configfile <name> 
- file containing specifications of host/program, 
one per line, with # as a comment indicator, e.g., the usual
mpiexec input, but with ":" replaced with a newline.  That is,
the configfile contains lines with -soft, -n etc.
.PD 1

Additional arguments that are specific to the MPICH2 implementation
are discussed below.

Note that not all of these parameters are meaningful for all
systems.  For example, the 
.I gforker
version of 
.I mpiexec
creates all
processes on the same system on which it is running; in that case, the
.I -arch
and 
.I -host
options are ignored.

The colon character (
.I :
) may be used to separate different executables
for MPMD (multiple program multiple data) programming.  For example,
to run the program 
.I ocean
on 4 processes and 
.I air
on 8 processes, use:

.nf
mpiexec -n 4 ocean : -n 8 air
.fi



.SH MPICH2-SPECIFIC ARGUMENTS

Many of the implementations of process managers in MPICH2 support the
following arguments to 
.I mpiexec
:

.PD 0
.TP
.B -np <num> 
- A synonym for the standard 
.I -n
argument
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -env <name> <value> 
- Set the environment variable 
.I <name>
to 
.I <value>
for
the processes being run by 
.I mpiexec

.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -envnone 
- Pass no environment variables (other than ones specified with 
other 
.I -env
or 
.I -genv
arguments) to the processes being run by 
.I mpiexec
\&.

By default, all environment
variables are provided to each MPI process (rationale: principle of
least surprise for the user)
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -envlist <list> 
- Pass the listed environment variables (names separated
by commas), with their current values, to the processes being run by
.I mpiexec
\&.

.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -genv <name> <value> 
- The 
.I -genv
options have the same meaning as their
corresponding 
.I -env
version, except they apply to all executables, not just 
the current executable (in the case that the colon syntax is used to specify
multiple execuables).
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -genvnone 
- Like 
.I -envnone
, but for all executables
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -genvlist <list> 
- Like 
.I -envlist
, but for all executables
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -usize <n> 
- Specify the value returned for the value of the attribute 
.I MPI_UNIVERSE_SIZE
\&.

.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -l 
- Label standard out and standard error (
.I stdout
and 
.I stderr
) with 
the rank of the process
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -maxtime <n> 
- Set a timelimit of 
.I <n>
seconds.
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B -exitinfo 
- Provide more information on the reason each process exited if 
there is an abnormal exit
.PD 1

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES FOR MPIEXEC
The following environment variables are understood by some versions of
.I mpiexec
\&.
The command line arguments have priority over these; that is,
if both the environment variable and command line argument are used, the
value specified by the command line argument is used.

.PD 0
.TP
.B MPIEXEC_TIMEOUT  
- Maximum running time in seconds.  
.I mpiexec
will
terminate MPI programs that take longer than the value specified by
.I MPIEXEC_TIMEOUT
\&.

.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B MPIEXEC_UNIVERSE_SIZE 
- Set the universe size
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B MPIEXEC_PORT_RANGE 
- Set the range of ports that 
.I mpiexec
will use 
in communicating with the processes that it starts.  The format of 
this is 
.I <low>:<high>
\&.
For example, to specify any port between
10000 and 10100, use 
.I 10000:10100
\&.

.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B MPICH_PORT_RANGE 
- Has the same meaning as 
.I MPIEXEC_PORT_RANGE
and 
is used if 
.I MPIEXEC_PORT_RANGE
is not set.
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B MPIEXEC_PREFIX_DEFAULT 
- If this environment variable is set, output
to standard output is prefixed by the rank in 
.I MPI_COMM_WORLD
of the 
process and output to standard error is prefixed by the rank and the 
text 
.I (err)
; both are followed by an angle bracket (
.I >
).  If
this variable is not set, there is no prefix.
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B MPIEXEC_PREFIX_STDOUT 
- Set the prefix used for lines sent to standard
output.  A 
.I %d
is replaced with the rank in 
.I MPI_COMM_WORLD
; a 
.I %w
is 
replaced with an indication of which 
.I MPI_COMM_WORLD
in MPI jobs that
involve multiple 
.I MPI_COMM_WORLD
s (e.g., ones that use 
.I MPI_Comm_spawn
or
.I MPI_Comm_connect
).
.PD 1
.PD 0
.TP
.B MPIEXEC_PREFIX_STDERR 
- Like 
.I MPIEXEC_PREFIX_STDOUT
, but for standard error.
.PD 1

.SH RETURN STATUS
.I mpiexec
returns the maximum of the exit status values of all of the
processes created by 
.I mpiexec
\&.


.SH LOCATION
mpiexec.txt
